Have You Seen This Dress? Call 1-800-LOSTDRESS

I am still working on the muslin of my so-called pencil skirt.  I'm pretty super-excited about it actually, so I'm going to post it up as soon as I get it sewn into a more completed stage.  I may actually have created that rare and elusive creature, The Wearable Muslin.  I know, I know.  "It's just a myth!" you mock.  "A hazy fantasy dreamt up by an exhausted woman who just can't quite admit that she has wasted ten hours of her precious time."  But I say, "NO!  It's real, I tell you.  Real!"  Well.  Maybe.

In the meantime, I have become obsessed with something else.  "No, really?  Not you," some of you say sarcastically.  "Really," I reply, completely ignoring your snarky tone (you know who you are).  

If you would turn to your right, Gentle Readers, you will see the never-ending slideshow that is my Wardrobe Inspiration.  In it is this dress.   (I have no idea who made this dress because I picked it out from MyShape.com four months ago and they don’t seem to have it anymore.  And I can’t be bothered to investigate further.)

I love this dress.  Yes, I do.  Love it. I have no idea why I love it so much, but I'm telling you now: it will be mine.

And can I find a pattern to make it?  No.  I can not.

Now, I know perfectly well that I can make this dress (or rather the top I intend to turn it into) from any number of other patterns.  I certainly own several that would work.  This one, for instance. 

 

And this one. 

 

Or even this one, remember this? 

But they're not EXACTLY the same, are they?  No.  They are not.  If it's got a pleated front, it has no neckline piece.  If it's got a gathered front that I could convert into pleats, the sleeves are also gathered which I don't want.  If I use my coat pattern, I have to alter the yoke and remove the placket.  Plus, I've then made a shirt out of... my coat.

Yes, I can alter and redraft all of these things.  But I don't want to.

So, anyone have any knowledge of a pattern that looks like this?  Exactly this?

Huh?  Huh?  Do ya?

 

I am so totally going to have to draft something myself, right?  Hmmph.

Baby, It's Moderate With Wind From The S-SW Outside

(We’ll just assume from this point forward that you are ignoring the horrid photos of moi, right?  Right.  Because if I find out you’re not ignoring my really bad hair and horribly unflattering jeans… )

I hate sewing for myself.  Have I mentioned this before?  There are several ramifications to this, but the one most relevant to today's post is that I have suffered for five long ugly years with this atrocity of a winter coat.

 

It's from Target.  It’s hot pink.  It’s shapeless.  I hate it.

I hated this coat when I bought the stupid thing, but at the time I A) didn't sew clothing and B) really really needed a winter coat which C) were not plentiful on the ground - or in the stores- and this is what I ended up with.  Yuck.

The sad thing is that I have continued to wear this hideous nightmare for so long.  But every winter I think "Well, I guess I should make myself a new winter coat... something simple... go ahead and make it in fleece so it's easy to sew and warm to wear... it would be nice to have a coat that fits properly, think how much better you would feel in one that did... blah blah blah..."  But the fact is, by the time I actually get around to pulling out the coat patterns and contemplating what fitting adjustments I'll have to make, our short coat-wearing season is almost over.  And then since there are only four or five weeks left of coat weather, I just decide to make do with the World's Most Shapeless Coat and resolve to think about it next year.

So this year, even though coat-wearing season is still almost over, I made myself finish a coat.  Any coat.  In particular, Vogue 8460.  Remember that one?  And of course because I was rushing to get the stupid thing done before the temperature reaches 85, I didn't really pay so much attention to fitting it.

Ok, I'll admit it.  I didn't totally know how to do an FBA on this particular pattern.  Or rather, I did know I just didn't like what I knew so I pretended that I didn't.  Know, that is.  And I didn't do it.  Big mistake.  I also decided that because when I was fitting the tissue the pattern didn't meet my center back, I would just add four inches to the width.  At the hip.   That’s sort of like deciding that because there’s a crack in the plaster of your living room, you need to tear down the house. Yes.  I am flippin' brilliant sometimes.

So now I have a sort of ugly winter coat that fits sort of ok but not really.   But I finished a project that I’ve said I would finish for the past five years.  So there.

I’m not sure the photos really do it justice, but this is still way better than the Hideous Coat Of Shapelessness, so I guess I should be happy.  But I won't.  That is not how I roll, baby.

(You’ve completely ignored these photos of The Amazing Closed-Eyes-Double-Chin-And-Flat-Hair Girl, right?  I thought so.)